Jan., 1922 MAGPIES VERSUS LIVESTOCK 17 
cavity. One of these animals was nearly dead when found, and my recollec- 
tion is that the other case had a fatal termination also. 
Another instance of magpie depredation occurred in the winter of 1919 
when a half dozen hogs caught in a blizzard at some distance from the farm- 
yard gave up fighting the storm, and lay down together as such animals so 
frequently will. In that situation they were set upon by magpies and when 
found the birds had picked through the skin of the back and eaten into the 
flesh of every one of the six, though some were in much worse condition than 
others. 
Mr. Schorger’s correspondent in Utah (op. cit., p. 276) reported that in his 
experience ‘‘the wounds were always in the back, the magpie sitting there and 
pecking until it had opened up a small hole in the flesh.’’ This position is of 
course the natural and convenient one for the bird to assume, but much de- 
pends upon the presence on the sheep or other animal of previous wounds and 
their location. The cattle brands referred to as sometimes subject to molesta- 
tion happen to be on the sides of the animals. 
From the foregoing it may readily be seen that it would not require a very 
ereat extension of the habit for magpies to become a truly serious menace to 
livestock and the industry founded thereon. At any rate the possibility of this 
is worthy of consideration—before the event, rather than after. But as indi- 
cations on the hopeful side of the situation may properly be emphasized, 
(1) The possibility that the habit is one acquired only occasionally and by 
certain birds, so that the destruction of these particular individuals will suf- 
fice for protection on the part of the stockman until such time as another col- 
ony may take a notion to start the same thing over again. 
(2) The chance that in any ease the habit will always remain, as it would 
seem to be at present, sporadic. : 
In conclusion the writer ventures to add that he is not an ornithologist 
or well acquainted with the ornithological literature. Consequently it is whol- 
ly possible that magpie misbehaviour of the nature noted may already have 
received attention in print somewhere in addition to the note by Schorger, the 
only one on the subject which he has chanced to see. Any information re- 
specting the existence of earlier records, or in the way of new field observa- 
tions by others, would be greatly appreciated by him. 
Redlands, California, November 21, 1921. 
